Walking through the Laguardia Airport in New York City, I saw an advertisement that made me stop dead in my tracks. I decided to take a picture of the advertisement to share with you.
As a youth minister, I have interest in this picture and have a strong reaction. What about you? As a parent, as a Christian, as a peer, as a high school student, as a member of society, what does this advertisement stir inside of you?
What is your reaction to this advertisement?
Here is Heather and I if we were together in the early to mid 90s:
Absolutely disgusting.
Jesus on a moth. Read the article and see the video on this ridiculous story.
Best places to visit while in New York City (in no particular order…)
If you want to know about these places, google them. I did not have time to put a link for all these places.
Ok, what did I miss on this list? This is a huge, beautiful city with more stuff to see and do than we could possibly imagine. Let’s put our collective minds together to build the ultimate “to-do list” while in New York City.
I am currently sitting at gate 16 in terminal A at the DFW airport. I am about to get on a plane that is destined for New York City. All I know is that I will eating lunch in Manhatten (possibly lounging around Bryant Park).
I am meeting a good friend, Sean Reneau, in NYC to watch two New York Yankee baseball games. This is the last year that the Yankees are playing in historic Yankee Stadium. On top of that, the Yankees are playing the Boston Red Sox (the Yankees’ biggest rival). In fact, I will be watching the final two Boston/New York games at Yankee Stadium. I am beyond excited. As a sports fan, a baseball fan, and a Yankees fan, it does not get better than this.
Watch for me on ESPN tonight. I will be the guy with the huge, boyish, goofy grin plastered all over his face.
Pictures will come soon.
(Luke, you should be with me the next couple of days.)
The other day I was having an amazing conversation with a very dear friend. Our casual conversation turned into a deep conversation as we began talking about the most important thing in my life - my faith and relationship with God. It is important for you to know that this very dear friend is not a believer (yet!) and has never accepted Jesus. In a span of a few minutes, this friend asked me a series of some of the deepest questions I have ever been asked. I thought I would share these questions with you to see how you would answer these questions. Here are the questions…
WHERE IS GOD?
CAN GOD BE SEEN BY ANYBODY? (EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER.)
YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE LED BY GOD, BUT HOW CAN HE LEAD YOUR LIFE?
HOW HAS GOD CHANGED YOUR LIFE?
Yep, we just dove straight into the deep end. No dipping your foot to see if the water was warm. No slowly walking into the shallow end. Just a straight dive into the deep end.
I believe it is healthy to think about how we would answer questions like these as followers of Christ. Try not to get too turned off by the depth of thought they require.
How would you answer my very dear friend if you were asked these questions?
Thanks to Stephen Moore, a fellow youth pastor in Tennessee, for putting this amazing website on his blog. I saw this on his website and had to try this for myself.
The website is www.yearbookyourself.com. This website is a great way to waste some time and have a lot of fun and laughs doing it. What you do is simple. At this website, you upload a picture of yourself and then you see what your yearbook pictures would have looked like from 1950-2000. One of the funniest things I have seen in a while. I picked out my 12 best to share with you.
1952 1960
1978 1984
1988 1990
1994 1996
______________________
Which picture do you like the best?
Here is something something you do not see everyday:
On April 28, 2008, a baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox was suspended because of rain. Yesterday (August 25, 2008) the two teams finished the game with the Orioles defeating the White Sox 4-3 after 14 innings. Even though the game was completed on August 25, all the record books and stats will count for April 28.
Because of that the record books will say that…
Luis Montanez, a rookie outfielder for the Orioles, got the game-winning hit three months before his Major League Baseball debut.
Montanez got the hit off White Sox pitcher Horacio Ramirez. Both players were in the minor leagues when the game began in April.
Ken Griffey Jr, who was traded to the White Sox in late July, plays in a game with the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox on the same day.
That is one of the reasons why I love baseball so much. You never know when you are going to see something that has never happened before. I love it!
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You got any news of the wierd?
Oh, the first day of school! The memories come flooding back to me as I sit in my office thinking about what so many students and teachers are going through today (today is the first day of school in Sulphur Springs). This old man still remembers the anxiousness, nervousness, and excitement that came along with the first day of school.
I know from all the people who read this blog, we must have some amazing first day of school stories. For some of you, you might have to dive pretty deep into the ole’ memory bank, but I believe those stories are there. So…
Do you have any good first day of school stories? Do you have any funny first day of school stories? Do you have any embarrassing first day of school stories? Please share.
On May 27, 2008, Jay Bruce made his Major League Baseball debut for the Cincinnati Reds. The highly anticipated debut of the center fielder was one of the best starts to a big league career in history. Bruce ended his night with a perfect 3 for 3 with 2 walks, 2 runs scored, 2 runs batted in, and a stolen base. Talk about a debut.
The Disciples had a pretty amazing debut themselves in Acts 2.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the story, God’s Word says that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and then Peter stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun of a sermon that resulted in more than 3,000 coming to accept Jesus as Savior that day. What a debut, especially considering the expectation that was given to them by Jesus. He set the bar pretty high for those guys. Remember the words of Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV):
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
That was their mission. That was their goal. That was what was laid on their shoulders. What a God-sized mission!
After looking at their mission, I asked myself two questions:
How did God prepare them to do something huge for Him? When thinking about this question, God revealed something to me: the disciples were on spiritual cloud nine. Think about what happened in their lives in the past three years: they followed Jesus around for three years, they witnessed miracles, one walked on water, they were there when Jesus was arrested, they saw Jesus crucified, they saw Him die, they saw the empty tomb, they hung out with the risen Jesus, they saw Jesus ascend into heaven before their eyes, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Talk about a spiritual high! God had prepared them and equipped them to do something huge for Him.
Now the other question…
Where did they start? You know after they saw Jesus ascend into heaven, they all looked at each other scratching their heads, all thinking “now what?” How overwhelming that feeling and pressure must have felt in that moment. I can imagine John thinking, “Jesus told us to change the world, but how? Where do we start?”
If you look back at Acts 2 (their start), you will see that God brought the people to them. I guarantee you Peter looked over that huge crowd, felt butterflies in his stomach, nervously cleared his throat, and boldly opened his mouth and out spilled the Gospel and message that changed the world. God let them start changing the world right where they were, one person at a time.
I believe God has called all his children to be world-changers. Looking at your life, how has God been preparing you to change this world? All the spiritual highs and incredible God-moments where given to you to share with others. How are you doing with that?
Finally, I understand that the mission to change the world can be intimidating. Take comfort that God (like with the disciples) will open doors and bring people into your life to start accomplishing that mission. You have to start where you are first, one person at a time.
I like to write out and set my world-changing mission like this:
Any of that hit home today? This was pretty fresh on my heart if you could not tell. Hope this helps you in your journey.
IMPORTANT CHANGE: Time to update your Internet bookmarks. My original blog address - http://briancromer.wordpress.com - has now changed. My new blog address is http://briancromer.com. I now own the briancromer.com domain name. I am official. 
Please make the update in your bookmarks, links, and daily web surfing. Thanks so much for reading. I truly am humbled by all of your support.
When going to another country, you should always expect changes from your cultural norm. You can almost guarantee that your comfort zone will be stretched like crazy in some way. When I and the group of 23 people that I traveled with went to China over a month ago, to say our comfort zones were stretched would be an understatement. Nevertheless, we had an amazing time, met some incredible people, and ate some (what we considered) unusual food.
As I left my China experience, I had one regret. I did not take a picture of what I considered to be the craziest food we ate in China. I wanted to share it with you so bad. However, thanks to modern technology like digital cameras and the Internet, my great friend (Carol) took a picture of this crazy food and emailed it to me. So without further introduction, I give you…
CHICKEN FEET!!!
I think it looks a lot like ET’s hand. Imagine ET pointing towards the sky and creepily saying, “HOOOOOOOME!”
One of my China friends, Sherry, is watching the Olympics live in Beijing. She has been able to share her once in a lifetime experience with me through pictures. Her pictures have been so incredible that I wanted to share them with you. Enjoy…
Sherry in front of the Bird’s Nest
The roof of the aquatic center
Start of a swimming race
Michael Phelps (the man)
Phelps winning gold
In the new Internet world of social networking websites, Facebook.com and Myspace.com are the two heavyweights that dominate the web. Both websites are a great way to stay in contact with friends from all different chapters of your life. The real question is which website is actually better?
According to sheer numbers, Facebook is more popular. As of April 2008, the once Harvard-student-only Facebook had 132.1 million users compared to Myspace’s 117.6 million users.
Facebook has much more privacy, a new instant messaging feature, and a more general look to all the profiles. Myspace has a lot more entertainment features including personalized profiles, free music, and myspace videos.
As a user of both websites and as a youth minister, I personally like Facebook better. I like the easiness, the efficiency, and the privacy of Facebook. Facebook is much safer and definitely less shady. Myspace got to the point last year where I was getting friend requests everyday from wanna be porn stars named “Candy”. It was ridiculous. I pictured all these dirty old men, with a Brian post-China mustache, posing on their computers as 16 year olds, trying to talk to high school girls on Myspace. However, over the past six months Myspace has greatly improved their security and privacy features. All of my youth kids use Myspace, so I am still using it. However, I am pushing them to turn from the dark side and make the switch to Facebook.
What’s your vote? Which website do you think is better? Why? What is your rational behind your opinion? State your case.
While in China, our group had a very important choice: to love and invest in other people or to not love and not invest in other people.
This trip was unlike any other trip that I have ever taken. Normally trips like this only require small bursts of interaction with people and you hope that during those small windows of time that you can make a lasting difference in somebody’s life. However, this trip was different because it provided an opportunity to fully invest yourself for two weeks into other people’s lives.
But you had to choose. You had to choose to invest into other people. You had to choose to let other people in. You had to choose to let your guard down. You had to choose to love.
As the final day of camp came, many of our students (who made the choice to love) were very visibly upset when having to say goodbye to the people they invested so much of themselves into. After the final goodbyes and hugs, the tear-filled students would make their way over to me where I would hug them and give them the same consistent message.
I would tell them that loving is always worth it. The easy way would have been to coast through the two weeks, enjoying the experience, but keeping everybody at an arm’s length distance. That way your heart is protected to not feel pain while parting ways. But that is the easy way out.
I would tell them how proud I was that they chose to invest into the lives of others. They put their hearts on the line, shared their lives, and dove into the lives of those around them, making the most out of the opportunity and having no regrets. That is why we were there. That is what we signed up to do.
Finally, I would tell them one last thing. The sadness and tears that you experience in the moment of having to say goodbye to somebody you invested in is extremely difficult. However, the amazing relationships you built, the experiences you shared, and the memories you made are well-worth those moments of sadness while saying goodbye. LOVING IS ALWAYS WORTH IT.
Let me encourage you today.
Whether you are sitting in your office, in your dorm room, or in your home, make the choice to invest in other people’s lives. You do not have to go to China or some other trip to do that. There are people in your life - at your work, at your school, in your neighborhood, in your family - that God is wanting you to invest in and make a difference in their lives. Will they hurt you? They could. Will it be difficult to say goodbye to that relationship when your life changes seasons? Absolutely. Do not let those fears of being vulnerable and open paralyze you to keep people at an arm’s length.
LOVING IS ALWAYS WORTH IT.
vs 
